• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.145-149
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• 2015

A newly designed Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC) has been developed for the CubeSat mission, SIGMA (Scientific cubesat with Instruments for Global Magnetic field and rAdiation) to investigate space radiation. In order to test the performance of the TEPC, we have performed heavy ion beam experiments with the Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba (HIMAC), Japan. In space, human cells can be exposed to complex radiation sources, such as X-ray, Gamma ray, energetic electrons, protons, neutrons and heavy charged particles in a huge range of energies. These generate much a larger range of Linear Energy Transfer (LET) than on the ground and cause unexpected effects on human cells. In order to measure a large range of LET, from 0.3 to $1,000keV/{\mu}m$, we developed a compact TEPC which measures ionized particles produced by collisions between radiation sources and tissue equivalent materials in the detector. By measuring LET spectra, we can easily derive the equivalent dose from the complicated space radiation field. In this HIMAC experiment, we successfully obtained the linearity response for the TEPC with Fe 500 MeV/u and C 290 MeV/u beams and demonstrated the performance of the active radiation detector.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.25-31
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• 2014

There has been a rapid increase of the concern on the space radiation effect on pilots, crew and passengers at the commercial aircraft altitude (~ 10 km) recently. It is because domestic airline companies, Korean Air and Asiana Airlines have just begun operating the polar routes over the North Pole since 2006 and 2009 respectively. CARI-6 and CARI-6M are commonly used space radiation estimation programs which are provided officially by the U.S. federal aviation administration (FAA). In this paper, the route doses and the annual radiation doses for Korean pilots and cabin crew were estimated by using CARI-6M based on 2012 flight records. Also the modeling concept was developed for our own space radiation estimation program which is composed of GEANT4 and NRLMSIS00 models. The GEANT4 model is used to trace the incident particle transports in the atmosphere and the NRLMSIS00 model is used to get the background atmospheric densities of various neutral atoms at the aircraft altitude. Also presented are the results of simple integration tests of those models and the plan to include the space weather variations through the solar proton event (SPE) prediction model such as UMASEP and the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) prediction model such as Badhwar-O'Neill 2010.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.537-558
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• 2005

This paper addresses the results of HAUSAT-2 radiation environment and effect analyses, including TID and SEE analyses. Trapped proton and electron, solar proton, galactic cosmic ray models were considered for HAUSAT-2 TID radiation environment analysis. TID was analyzed through total dose-depth curve and the radiation tolerance of TID for HAUSAT-2 components was verified by using DMBP method and sectoring analysis. HAUSAT-2 LET spectrum for heavy ion and proton were also analyzed for SEE investigation. SEE(SEU, SEL) analyses were accomplished for MPC860T2B microprocessor and K6X8008T2B memory. It was estimated that several SEUs may occur without SEL during the HAUSAT-2 mission life(2 years). Software Hamming Code EDAC has been implemented to detect and correct the SEU. In this study, all radiation analyses were conducted by using SPENVIS software.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.42-42
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• 2012

The First stars (Pop.III stars) in the universe are expected to be formed between the recombination era at z - 1100 and the most distant quasar (z - 8). They have never been directly detected due to its faintness so far, but can be observed as a background radiation at around 1${\mu}m$ which is called the Cosmic Near-Infrared Background (CNB). Main part of the CNB is thought to be redshifted Lyman-alpha from gas clouds surrounding the Pop.III stars. Until now, the COBE (COsmic Background Explorer) and the IRTS (Infrared Telescope in Space) observed excess emission over the background due to galaxies. To confirm the COBE and the IRTS results and pursue more observational evidences, we carried out the sounding rocket experiment named the Cosmic Infrared Background ExpeRiment (CIBER). The CIBER is successfully launched on July 10, 2010 at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, USA. It consists of three kinds of instruments. We report the results obtained by LRS (Low Resolution Spectrometer) which is developed to fill the uncovered spectrum around 1${\mu}m$. LRS is a refractive telescope of 5.5 cm aperture with spectral resolution of 20 - 30 and wavelength coverage of 0.7 to 2.0${\mu}m$. After subtracting foreground components (zodiacal light, integrated star light and diffuse galactic light) from the sky brightness of observed five fields, there remained significant residual emission (even for the lower limit case) consistent with the IRTS and the COBE results. In addition, there exists a clear gap at 0.7 - 0.8${\mu}m$ in the CNB spectrum over the background due to galaxies according to recent results (Matsuoka et al. 2011; Mattila et al. 2011). The origin of the excess emission could be ascribed to the Pop.III stars with its active era of z = 7 - 10.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.38.1-38.1
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• 2021

Dust polarization depends on the physical and mechanical properties of dust, as well as the properties of local environments. To understand how dust polarization varies with grain mechanical properties and the local environment, in this paper, we model the wavelength-dependence polarization of starlight and polarized dust emission by aligned grains by simultaneously taking into account grain alignment and rotational disruption by radiative torques (RATs). We explore a wide range of the local radiation field and grain mechanical properties characterized by tensile strength. We find that the maximum polarization and the peak wavelength shift to shorter wavelengths as the radiation strength U increases due to the enhanced alignment of small grains. Grain rotational disruption by RATs tends to decrease the optical-near infrared polarization but increases the ultraviolet polarization of starlight due to the conversion of large grains into smaller ones. In particular, we find that the submillimeter (submm) polarization degree at 850㎛(P850) does not increase monotonically with the radiation strength or grain temperature (Td), but it depends on the tensile strength of grain materials. Our physical model of dust polarization can be tested with observations toward star-forming regions or molecular clouds irradiated by a nearby star, which have higher radiation intensity than the average interstellar radiation field. Finally, we compare our predictions of the P850-Td relationship with Planck data and find that the observed decrease of P850 with Td can be explained when grain disruption by RATs is accounted for, suggesting that interstellar grains unlikely to have a compact structure but perhaps a composite one. The variation of the submm polarization with U (or Td)can provide a valuable constraint on the internal structures of cosmic dust

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.34.1-34.1
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• 2013

The first generation stars in the universe are not observed as discrete objects by using current observational facilities, but their contributions are redshifted to the near infrared wavelength bands at present universe. Therefore, investigation of background radiation at near infrared is important for the study of the first stars. In this study, we present new observations of spatial fluctuations in sky brightness toward the north ecliptic pole using data from AKARI. Among pointed observation program of AKARI, we used two pointing surveys named Monitor field and NEP wide field at three wavelength bands 2.4, 3.2, and 4.1 ${\mu}m$. To obtain spatial fluctuations from observed images, first of all, we exclude pixels affected by resolved foreground objects and then obtain diffuse map which consists of diffused radiation only. Because the diffuse map contains not only cosmological components but also various foreground components, in order to detect cosmological components, we estimate the contributions of foreground components separately. The results of this study show that there remains excess spatial fluctuation that cannot be explained by known foreground sources. This work is based on observations with AKARI, a JAXA project with the participation of ESA.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.35.1-35.1
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• 2013

The first generation stars in the universe are not observed as discrete objects by using current observational facilities, but their contributions are redshifted to the near infrared wavelength bands at present universe. Therefore, investigation of background radiation at near infrared is important for the study of the first stars. In this study, we present new observations of spatial fluctuations in sky brightness toward the north ecliptic pole using data from AKARI. Among pointed observation program of AKARI, we used two pointing surveys named Monitor field and NEP wide field at three wavelength bands 2.4, 3.2, and 4.1 ${\mu}$. To obtain spatial fluctuations from observed images, first of all, we exclude pixels affected by resolved foreground objects and then obtain diffuse map which consists of diffused radiation only. Because the diffuse map contains not only cosmological components but also various foreground components, in order to detect cosmological components, we estimate the contributions of foreground components separately. The results of this study show that there remains excess spatial fluctuation that cannot be explained by known foreground sources. This work is based on observations with AKARI, a JAXA project with the participation of ESA.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.317-323
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• 2014

Odyssey, one of the NASA's Mars exploration program and SELENE (Kaguya), a Japanese lunar orbiting spacecraft have a payload of Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS) for analyzing radioactive chemical elements of the atmosphere and the surface. In these days, gamma-ray spectroscopy with a High-Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector has been widely used for the activity measurements of natural radionuclides contained in the soil of the Earth. The energy spectra obtained by the HPGe detectors have been generally analyzed by means of the Window Analysis (WA) method. In this method, activity concentrations are determined by using the net counts of energy window around individual peaks. Meanwhile, an alternative method, the so-called Full Spectrum Analysis (FSA) method uses count numbers not only from full-absorption peaks but from the contributions of Compton scattering due to gamma-rays. Consequently, while it takes a substantial time to obtain a statistically significant result in the WA method, the FSA method requires a much shorter time to reach the same level of the statistical significance. This study shows the validation results of FSA method. We have compared the concentration of radioactivity of $^{40}K$, $^{232}Th$ and $^{238}U$ in the soil measured by the WA method and the FSA method, respectively. The gamma-ray spectrum of reference materials (RGU and RGTh, KCl) and soil samples were measured by the 120% HPGe detector with cosmic muon veto detector. According to the comparison result of activity concentrations between the FSA and the WA, we could conclude that FSA method is validated against the WA method. This study implies that the FSA method can be used in a harsh measurement environment, such as the gamma-ray measurement in the Moon, in which the level of statistical significance is usually required in a much shorter data acquisition time than the WA method.

• Journal of Satellite, Information and Communications
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2013

In this study, we summarized the results of "Pre-study for the development of Polar route space radiation forecast model", funded by National Meteorological Satellite Center, Korea Meteorological Administration. We investigated the aviation space weather-related literature and the airline companies's operation manual associated with the space weather. We also identify the strengths and weaknesses of many pre-existing space radiation calculation programs, and find the potential to be improved. Until now, we don's have our own space radiation calculation program, so we need more improved space radiation calculation program which will be developed by ourselves. Currently most space radiation calculation programs cannot reflect temporary variations in the solar activities and the space weather. Here we analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of those programs, which are widely used in typical space radiation calculations. Finally to reflect the real-time space weather effects in the forecast model, we need to develop more precise forecast model. For that purpose, we suggest the following four steps: (1) at first, we have to choose the ground-based radiation dose calculation program, (2) we have to select a proper atmospheric model in aircraft altitude, (3) we combine the selected ground cosmic radiation dose calculation program and the selected atmospheric model, and finally (4)we have to reflect the real time space weather information and space weather forecast into the newly combined model.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.46.2-46.2
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• 2015

Modern methods in determining the value of the Hubble constant are divided into two main ways: the classical distance ladder method and the inverse distance ladder method. The classical distance ladder method is based on Cepheid calibrated Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), which are known as powerful distance indicator. The inverse distance ladder method uses cosmic microwave background radiation, which emitted from the high-z universe, and the cosmological model. Recent estimations of the Hubble constant based on these two methods show a $2{\sim}3{\sigma}$ difference, which called the "Hubble tension". It is currently an issue in the modern cosmology. We have been working on the luminosity calibration of SNe Ia based on the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB), which is a precise population I distance indicator. We present the TRGB distance estimates of 5 SNe Ia host galaxies with the archival Hubble Space Telescope image data. We derive the mean absolute maximum magnitude of 5 SNe Ia and the value of the Hubble constant. Cosmological implications of our estimate will be discussed.